INFO: Chronos and Triggers [24492]

Chronos comes packed with a wide array of options for I/O communication. This allows the easy integration of external devise without the need to have antiquated hardware, like parallel ports (or PCIe cards) installed on your computer. The Chronos’ I/O features allow for these types of communication to be handled entirely by Chronos. There are several ways to integrate I/O communication into your experiment. This article outlines a few of the basic implementation methods.

We have made communication with the Auxiliary I/O Breakout Cable as simple as possible. To set up the hardware, all you have to do is plug the fitted end of the breakout cable into the back of the Chronos (see image above). Then, simply plug the wires of the breakout cable into their desired location. Below is a diagram of the cables of the Auxiliary I/O breakout cable and their functions.

Image 2 I/O Cable

Pin

Color

Function

Description

Response Mapping (Psuedo Button)

1

Light Blue

+5V

+5V

n/a

2

Light Green

OUT14 (base 0)

Digital Output

n/a

3

Purple

OUT15

Digital Output

n/a

4

White

Digital Ground

Digital Ground

n/a

5

Orange

Analog Ground

Analog Ground

n/a

6

Yellow

IN16 (base 1)

Digital Input

G

7

Brown

In15 base 1)

Digital Input

F

8

Red

ADC1

Analog Input

9

Table1 Auxiliary I/O Cable pinout and description

With these cables, you can both send and receive a wide array of signals from a variety of device. Below is an image of the Graphical User Interface (GUI) for the software interface.

Image 3 Chronos Digital Out Properties GUI

Image 4 Chronos Analog Out Properties GUI

This is all you need to communicate with external devices using the Auxiliary I/O port on the back of Chronos.

Chronos I/O ExpanderA few devices require very specific communication that is beyond the capabilities of the I/O Breakout Cable. In these instances, the device with which E-Prime is communicating requires very specific signals to be sent. Often, companies will recommend a PCIe card to be able to send triggers to specific pins to accommodate the complex communication. However, Chronos has a solution to this as well. You can achieve the same level of signal specificity with the Chronos I/O Expander, pictured below.

Image 5 Chronos I/O Expander

The I/O Expander is able to achieve this level of signal specificity through the 25-pin input and output board. This is this the full solution to not having a parallel port installed on your computer. Communication via the Chronos I/O Expander is simple and functions very similarly to the Auxiliary I/O cable. A step-by-step guide can be found below.

1) Determine the types of signals needed for your experiment.

Image 6 Waveform with Markers

2) Set up E-Prime experiment accordingly.

Image Task Event that sends a signal to the Chronos at the onset of the Stimulus object

3) Plug the Chronos into the USB drive of the computer.

Image 8 Chronos plugged into the USB drive of the testing computer

4) Plug the I/O Expander into the back of the Chronos Device.

Image 9 Chronos with I/O Expander

5) Attach the correct wires to the I/O expander.

Image 10 Wires coming from pins 2, 9, and Ground of the I/O Expander

6) Attach the correct wires from the I/O expander to your external device.

Image 11 Wires coming from Chronos to external device

Image 12 Complete setup

These six steps will allow you to communicate with an external device through the Chronos I/O Expander without the need for a parallel port. Steps 2, 3 and 4 will change depending on the type of equipment to which you are sending signals, the types of signals that you are sending, and the signals that the receiving equipment is expecting. Once you know this information, following this guide will be very simple.

Triggers in E-Prime SoftwareE-Prime has a feature that allows for triggers to be time-locked with events in E-Prime. This feature is called Task Events (as seen in Image 6) and is handled entirely though the Graphic User Interface. This means that you won’t have to write complex lines of script in order to achieve the same millisecond accuracy when sending triggers. The Task Events feature will do this for you. If you would like to learn more about Task Events and how to pair events in E-Prime to triggers, please take a look at the following article on the topic: E-STUDIO: Using Task Events [22862].